Uncharted writer Amy Hennig was not “forced out,” Naughty Dog says in a statement that calls reports of her departure unprofessional and upsetting.

On Tuesday, news broke that Hennig, the award-winning lead writer and director on Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, had parted ways with Naughty Dog. Parent company Sony confirmed the news, but would only say that Hennig “left” without providing a reason for her departure.

Citing “numerous trusted sources close to Naughty Dog,” IGN reported that Hennig was “forced out” by The Last of Us Creative Director Neil Druckmann and Game Director Bruce Straley. It’s that report that Naughty Dog has taken issue with.

Earlier this week we had to confirm the regrettable news that Amy Hennig has left Naughty Dog. She will be missed and, as we stated before, we appreciate the significant contributions that she has made to Naughty Dog and the industry in general. We wish her the best.

However, we feel it necessary to clear up a very important point that was unprofessionally misreported when the story broke. Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann were NOT involved in what transpired. It was very upsetting to us that dozens of stories were run, linking back to the same hurtful accusations in the original report. As co-presidents of Naughty Dog, we are responsible for all studio affairs.

Normally, we wouldn’t respond to rumors and speculation on matters that are internal to Naughty Dog, but because the personal reputation of two of our employees is being damaged we needed to set the record straight. There is nothing left to be said on this subject. Now we’re going back to what we should be focused on – making games.

Hennig herself has not commented on the circumstances of her departure.

Not to further fan the flames of speculation, but it’s worth nothing that Hennig retweeted an unrelated Tweet by Mitch Dyer yesterday, the IGN writer who reported she was “forced out” by Druckmann and Straley.

According to a report at IGN, Sony confirmed that Hennig is no longer with the studio. “We can confirm that Amy Hennig has left Naughty Dog. Amy has made significant contributions to the game industry and we appreciate all she has done for Naughty Dog,” a Sony statement reads. “The development timeline of Uncharted will not be impacted.” Hennig’s last day with the studio was Monday, the report states.

Citing “numerous trusted sources,” the report goes on to state that Hennig didn’t leave voluntarily — rather, she was “forced out,” according to sources, by The Last of Us Creative Director Neil Druckmann and Game Director Bruce Straley, although the report does not elaborate further on the specifics of her departure. The report also says that Uncharted “may now come under their control.”

In an Ask Me Anything Reddit post on Feb. 21, Druckmann stated he was not involved in the Uncharted project.

Hennig is best known for her work on the Uncharted series, and served as lead writer and director of all Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, She won the Writers Guild of America’s Outstanding Achievement in Writing for Video Games in 2012 for Uncharted 3.

Hennig had been with Naughty Dog for 10 years. She also worked on the Jak and Daxter series, and was writer and director of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

GameFront has reached out to both Naughty Dog and Sony for comment, and this story will be updated as more information becomes available.

They say that those who can’t do, teach. So what does it mean when someone who can do takes a stab at teaching? And how does that affect the people for whom he used to do? We’re about to find out, as Richard Lemarchand, lead designer for the Uncharted series, has announced that he’s quit Naughty Dog in order to take a teaching position at USC.

Lemarchand will be joining USC’s celebrated School Of Cinematic Arts, joining the Interactive Media Division which, incidentally, has been repeatedly designated by the Princeton Review as America’s best game design school. But what’s especially interesting is his comments that seem to indicate the Uncharted series might be over. He decided to leave after the completion of Uncharted 3, because “It seems like a natural transition point.” Continuing, he said “I was involved with development of the Uncharted series, not quite from the beginning, but almost – and even though the Uncharted series isn’t intended to be viewed as a trilogy, maybe there’s something about the number three that felt… there is a certain [sense] of completeness for me.”

That’s a rather interesting way to put it. Naughty Dog has never indicated any intention to bring the Uncharted Series to an end – in fact, they’ve recently indicated they intend to make more in the future – but this seems a rather final act. With the company focusing on titles like the upcoming The Last Of Us, their plate is certainly full. Even so, this would be a weird place to end the series. I’m not alone in thinking that Uncharted 3 is a riveting play experience that falls apart on repeated playthroughs because the story is half-developed. I’d hate for the end of the Nathan Drake saga to leave things so ambiguous.

Chances are we’ll soon hear a clarification from Naughty Dog that the series will go on. We’ll be keeping an eye out. In the meantime, USC students interested in video games just got a hell of a great reason to change majors. #jealous.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/richard-lemarchand-quits-naughty-dog-to-teach/feed/0Player Cuts Together Uncharted as Movies (VIDEOS)http://www.gamefront.com/player-cuts-together-uncharted-as-movies-videos/
http://www.gamefront.com/player-cuts-together-uncharted-as-movies-videos/#commentsMon, 23 Apr 2012 19:38:59 +0000Phil Hornshawhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=163875Watch the entirety of the Uncharted series in three huge story compilations.

Instead, morphinapg used in-game footage and cinematics to cut together the three games as films, keeping gameplay to a minimum in order to move the story forward without plotholes, and focusing completely on the story. The result: Three Uncharted movies that tell the stories of the games without the pesky multi-hour investment of playing through them multiple times. Kinda gotta say, I dig it.

We’ve got all three videos embedded below, but be warned: not only are they pretty long, they’re hard to stop watching once you start. Meantime, check out morphinapg’s YouTube Channel right here.

Playstation 3-exclusive games face a slightly uphill battle in the quest to top sales charts. Sony has sold approximately 55 million units since launching in 2011. Though only slightly behind Xbox 360′s 57 million units sold (Both consoles are dwarfed by Wii’s 90 million units), it’s still in third place and the best selling PS3 game is Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is of course sold cross-platform.They must therefore be celebrating right now on the news that taken as a whole, the 3 games of the Uncharted series has sold an impressive 13 million copies. That tidbit was revealed by Asad Quizilbash, talking to Industry gamers.

This isn’t a Call of Duty-level success of course. Sales figures are spread across all three games. But it means that 23% of all Playstation 3 owners have purchased at least one Uncharted game. So congratulations for having good taste, guys.

The Uncharted series has made a habit of topping itself with every outing. No wonder, since we live on a pretty big planet with some pretty cool things to see. In Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Nathan and co. went to the jungles of Central America and then a remote tropical island in the search for El Dorado. Along the way they came up against Nazi Zombies, years before COD: Black Ops. In Among Thieves, Nate broke into a museum in Istanbul, went to Borneo and ultimately made his way to the Himalayas in search of Shangri-la. Also, He fought yeti. Now with Drake’s Deception, we get London, a crusader castle in Syria, the Arabian Desert and a vast pirate fleet in the Indian Ocean while Nate looks for Iram of the pillars, the Islamic world’s version of Soddom and Gommorah (And possibly a real place!)

The thing all three games have in common is that instead of just making up some ridiculous, generic magical thingee, the artifacts and lost kingdoms Nate is looking for are based on actual myths and legends. Drawing from real world cultures allows the stories, much like the (good) Indiana Jones films, to have the flavor of reality without getting too bogged down by actual physics. It also means the chance to explore places based on real world locales, treating the gamer to some rather stunning recreations of Earth’s most amazing places.

It should come as no surprise that Naughty Dog are promising an inexhaustible stream of Uncharted Games. Great! I only just completed Uncharted 3 and I’m already dying for part 4. So where will Nate go next? That’s a question for the development team to answer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun while we wait. So GameFront puts the question to you, o readers: Where should Nathan Drake travel next?

To get things rolling, I have a few suggestions:

1) Hy-Brasil

According to Irish and English legends, Hy-Brasil, or just ‘Brasil’, was an island somewhere to the west of Ireland in the North Atlantic, said to be completely hidden by a shroud of mists except for one day every 7 years. Numerous attempts were made to locate the place starting in the 15th century but none were successful. (Fun Fact: The Nation of Brazil is named after a local wood with bark the color of red embers, ‘brasa’ in Portugese and is not related to Hy-Brasil, which wasn’t a popular legend in Iberia.)

In modern times, it is believed that a raised patch of Ocean floor called Porcupine Bank may have given rise to the legend. Though fully submerged today, it might have potentially been visible from time to time during periods of lower sea level – for instance, during the so-called “little ice age” lasting from the late 1200s through the middle of the nineteenth century.

Suggestion: Nathan is searching for the location of Hy-Brasil and discovers its connected somehow to the disappearance of the Norse colonies in North America during the 1300s. Nate could explore Scotland, Ireland, the Fjords of Norway and Sweden, the vast Canadian expanse and, of course, the North Atlantic. Also, bonus points if someone makes a sarcastic crack about the nation of Brazil.

2) The Roanoke Colony Disappearance

The Roanoke colony was an English settlement in what is now North Carolina during the late 1500s, organized by Sir Walter Raleigh (a contemporary of Nathan’s namesake Sir Francis drake and explorer in his own right). After several rough winters and more than one aborted start, the colony mysteriously disappeared. When Englishman John White arrived in 1590 to resupply the colony, all 90 men, 17 women, and 11 children were simply gone. No sign of battle or bloodshed was found, and the only clue was the word “Croatoan”, possibly a reference to local Croatan Indians, scratched into some wood.

A story in which Nate sets out to discover the secret behind the disappearing colony would have a ton of opportunity for spectacular levels. For one thing, the region is now heavily urbanized. A trip to Washington, D.C. would be a must, as would a peek into Walter Raleigh’s stay in the Tower of London and alleged ties to terrorist activity against King James. We have yet to see Nate set foot in the United States despite the fact that he’s clearly American, so perhaps we could explore a bit of why that is. Better still, the story could easily tie back to Drake’s Fortune, which contains the discovery that Drake narrowly averted a zombie apocalypse by preventing the Spanish from making use of the El Dorado statue. It’d be interesting to relate that story to the disappearance of the colonists.

Zheng He, the theory goes, may even have circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. No official records support the theory (though circumstantial evidence has been advanced). What is known is that toward the end of Zheng He’s life, after decades of lavishly funding voyages of exploration, the Chinese imperial government suddenly cut off all money for such trips. They then began a policy of strict isolation that was to continue until the humiliating wars with European powers in the 1800s.

An Uncharted story with Nate retracing the voyages of Zheng He, and the reason China turned its back on exploration would have everything: lavish treasure (Zheng He brought tons of it back to China after every voyage, including large African animals), the vastness of the Pacific ocean, locales ranging from Australia (The Victorian Alps are a must), to British Columbia. You could even cover the search for a Northwest passage. Best of all, the entire game would take place in the ring of fire, which means quakes and volcanos, two environmental phenomenon Naughty Dog has yet to try.

So what do you think? What would you like to see in the next Uncharted game? Let us know in comments, and be sure to bring your gun.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/where-should-nathan-drake-travel-next-tell-us/feed/3Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Reviewhttp://www.gamefront.com/uncharted-3-drakes-deception-review/
http://www.gamefront.com/uncharted-3-drakes-deception-review/#commentsTue, 01 Nov 2011 07:08:06 +0000Ross Lincolnhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=134939The third installment in the Uncharted Saga is almost great, but falls just short of brilliance.

In most ways, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception isn’t all that different from Among Thieves or Drake’s Fortune. If you’ve played those games, then you know the deal: you’ll travel from one lushly realized locale to another looking for a bizarre ancient artifact, succeed in making impossibly vertical climbs, investigate ancient ruins, solve puzzles and shoot at your enemies. That doesn’t mean it’s a disappointment; fortunately, rather than simply reproducing what worked in previous games, Drake’s Deception also has a few tweaks, like improved fighting, dramatic departures from previous games’ conventions and the best environments yet seen in the series.

It also contains the most interesting premise in series history, and if the slightly uneven story doesn’t quite live up to that premise, the as-expected witty dialogue, surprisingly mean sense of humor and some amazing mocap and voice acting make up for it. The result is a game that isn’t quite perfect, but is ahead, by leaps and bounds, of all but a few you’re likely to play in this or any other year.

As I said above, you’re going to do a lot of what you’ll do in any Uncharted game, and first and foremost, that means platforming and puzzle solving. Puzzle solving remains essentially what it has always been, which is that it might be the series’ biggest weakness. Though the puzzles are always just hard enough to keep the player engaged in solving them without becoming frustrated enough to consult a guide, they’re never actually difficult. As if to emphasize that, Uncharted 3 contains some of the easiest puzzles yet, made even easier by the ability to activate a solution to a given puzzle after you’ve spent a certain amount of time without solving it. This isn’t a bad thing, exactly. The point of an Uncharted game, as I see it anyway, is to work your way through the story about solving puzzles, not necessarily to actually solve puzzles. It would be nice if they required a bit more effort, but if I have to choose between maintaining a thrilling pace and feeling like a brainiac gamer, at least when it comes to Nathan Drake I’ll choose the thrill.

The platforming aspects, however, are some of the most inventive and challenging in recent memory. Climbing works exactly as it does in the previous games, right down to the obvious “Hey Look At That Grab-able Ledge” handholds. But you knew that. The real question in every game is basically ‘how crazy can this get,’ and the answer is ‘very.’ Climbing levels may remain fairly linear, but they’re also tense, huge and extremely varied. I won’t spoil the whole thing, but just for a taste, you can look forward to escaping a burning French manor house, swimming and climbing your way through an amazing, must-be-seen-to-be-believed abandoned shipyard and shortly thereafter, fighting your way into a cruise liner serving as the flagship of a pirate fleet, only to have to quickly escape while it capsizes, constantly changing orientation.

What really distinguishes Drakes’ Deception’s gameplay are the changes Naughty Dog made. No, not the promised automatic ammo pickups which aren’t part of story mode, but the changes to melee combat and new ideas about what an Uncharted level can be like.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/uncharted-3-drakes-deception-review/feed/6If Video Game Characters Had To Find Real Jobshttp://www.gamefront.com/if-video-game-characters-had-to-find-real-jobs/
http://www.gamefront.com/if-video-game-characters-had-to-find-real-jobs/#commentsWed, 14 Sep 2011 23:24:58 +0000Ross Lincolnhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=124526It isn't easy bringing home the bacon once the quest is over. We show you how five classic characters pull it off.

When you’re in the middle of a job, it seems like it’s going to last forever. This is doubly true if the job in question is your chosen career, like lawyer or ‘not starving person’. But when the job ends, whether by project completion, puzzle solving or the final destruction of your hated enemies, you might find yourself in the position of having worked yourself quite literally out of a job.

In the real world, this is when we start collecting unemployment and praying. But then again, we have a legal work history and parents to leech off. Our friends in the world of Video Games aren’t so lucky. So what happens when one of them finds themselves without gainful employment? They’re forced to reenter the legitimate workforce, and the results aren’t always pretty.

After the Reaper menace’s crushing defeat, Commander Shephard finds himself in an unscheduled career transition. Being a Spectre is pretty awesome but it doesn’t actually pay anything, and his failure to advance beyond the rank of ‘Commander’ dooms his postwar military career. Unceremoniously drummed out of the Alliance with an honorable discharge and a tiny pension, he needs to find a new job to fund his Spectre duties.

Fortunately, what he lacks in cash flow he makes up for in name recognition and the gratitude of the Citadel chamber of commerce, whose members saw a 500% rise in profits after Shephard offered endorsements to their shops during the events of Mass Effect 2. They hire Shep without even an interview or resume, and from now on, the ultimate space soldier moonlights as the ultimate Mall cop. Whenever duty calls, he nobly announces “I should go,” and races to defend the Citadel markets from shoplifters.

4) Pac-Man – Addiction Counselor

Pac-Man spent over 30 years eating pellets, super pellets, fruits and ghosts. It was all for a noble cause of course, namely defending his maze-like realm from invasion. But the high-octane, high consumption lifestyle took its toll and when he finally retired, he was forced to admit he’d developed a serious food addiction. After seeking knowledgable and caring treatment, he reentered a society with a new purpose: help other people who, like him, found the pressures of their jobs led to self destructive addictions. Now he counsels ex stock brokers, politicians, rock stars and even teachers, helping them find a way out of the cycle of addition. He doesn’t have a cell phone but if you ever need to talk he’s just a quarter away.

3) Nathan Drake (Uncharted) – Pawn Shop Owner

Poor Nathan Drake. Despite his constant attempts to pretend otherwise, Sully is right: he ain’t gettin’ any younger. Sooner than he thought, his joints locked up, he couldn’t recover from multiple gunshot wounds just by hiding behind a wall, and Elena is dropping hints all over the house about how he ought to maybe get his retirement in order. Finally accepting that he had gotten too old for this, er, stuff, Nate finally retired from the treasure hunter/bad guy murderer field.

But what does a man without any legal employment history or non-treasure stealing/bad guy killing skills do with the rest of his life? Exactly what David O’ Russell would have done in the now aborted movie: Nate opens his own pawn shop. Now lowlifes from all walks of life can try pawning off their valuables for drug money. Best of all? It’s the perfect way to launder the illegally-gained money Nathan earned over the years. So long as any old enemies don’t come looking to get 5 bucks for a gold pocketwatch.

2) Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Assassin’s Creed)- Window Washer

Ezio’s story seemingly ends when he reaches old age in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. But au contraire al contrario il mio amico! The essence of Ezio survives in the body and mind of boring series protagonist Desmond Miles. Aware of Desmond’s lack of charisma or any interesting qualities, Ezio takes over his body in the present… and finds himself in a world vastly beyond his comprehension. The national security state means he no longer has a prayer of living as a thief. He is revered by the Assassins as a honored ancestor but his pop culture references are 500 years out of date and he creeps out modern women with his leering and silly pick up lines. Thus, he vows to retire into obscurity.

Luckily, the Assassin’s aren’t wholly heartless. They give him a job where he can still do the one thing he’s actually good at: climbing stuff. Now tasked with washing the Assassin’s headquarters’ windows, he’s able to once again enjoy the thrill of inexplicably climbing despite having access to perfectly walkable streets. The only problem? He doesn’t realize that 21st century cities don’t have random piles of hay lying around, and his career is cut short when he leaps recklessly into a pile of cardboard boxes.

1) Mario – Animal Control Officer

After more than two decades, Mario finally liberated the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser’s Tyranny once and for all. Coincidentally, Princess Peach suddenly lost interest in her mustachioed companion, and their relationship, such as it was, ended. Mario subsequently decides to leave the Kingdom and return to his Native New York City in order to start over. The only problem is that his plumbing license expired in 1986 and he’s long since lost touch with advances in that profession.

That’s when Mario sees an ad in the New York Post: Animal Control Officer; Must have minimum 3 years of experience with dangerous animals; Degree in animal control or equivalent work experience required; Mustaches and monograms welcome. Dazzled by Mario’s experience taking out giant Gorillas, carnivorous plants and numerous species of killer turtles, he’s hired on the spot. And speaking of turtles, for his first job, he’s asked to combine the skills learned in his first career with his new job. So off he goes into the New York City sewer system to put a stop to another turtle infestation…

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/if-video-game-characters-had-to-find-real-jobs/feed/3Uncharted Gets a Two-Packhttp://www.gamefront.com/uncharted-gets-a-two-pack/
http://www.gamefront.com/uncharted-gets-a-two-pack/#commentsWed, 31 Aug 2011 18:36:18 +0000Phil Owenhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=121435If you don't have these games, you are a douche and should buy them.

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Look, I guess I understand there are some people out there who don’t own copies of Uncharted and Uncharted 2. Intellectually, I get that. But in my heart I think you’re all just douches for not buying two of the best PS3 exclusives. Probably the two best PS3 exclusives.

But if you haven’t bought these games, you can fix that next week with the Uncharted Dual Pack, which is one box that includes both games for $39. If you aren’t willing to throw down that kind of cash on the two best PS3 exclusive, then there can be no doubting your douche status, ya douche. Here’s a trailer for this two-pack.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/uncharted-gets-a-two-pack/feed/1NGP May See Staggered Release, Be Really Expensivehttp://www.gamefront.com/ngp-may-see-staggered-release-be-really-expensive/
http://www.gamefront.com/ngp-may-see-staggered-release-be-really-expensive/#commentsThu, 07 Apr 2011 11:21:29 +0000Phil Owenhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=92135I don't think any part of that is good news.

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Due to continuing complications in the development of the NGP as a result of the recent major earthquakes that hit Japan, Sony may not be prepared to give the handheld a simultaneous worldwide release this fall. SCEA prez Jack Tretton says they may be forced to start off with a release in just one region, and which lucky region that would be is up in the air. It’d be Europe, North America or Japan, whichever would be most financially feasible. Japan seems like the natural choice, being as that’s how it’s always been done; however, here are far fewer people in that country than in either Europe or NA, and Europe actually probably has the best track record for buying Sony handhelds in wild droves.

Meanwhile, Jack Tretton is also also seemingly trying to get people ready to pay out the ass for the thing, saying that folks see a new platform as an investment that pays off over many years and that they’re totally willing to drop a few hundred bucks on a handheld device if it’s cool. And that’s true, if it’s an Apple device. Everything else, maybe not. Here’s an actual quote, followed by a video of him saying that quote and more. (Everything comes from Fast Company, where you can find more videos.)

People are used to spending several hundreds of dollars to get a portable device. I think in the long run, when you look at that total investment in a platform, the amount of money you spend on the hardware is a relatively small percentage of the total investment. It’s not to say the price of the platform isn’t a consideration, but I don’t think price makes or kills a platform. Something that’s lousy, that’s very inexpensive, is not going to be successful, and something that’s pricey will ultimately find its audience if there’s enough value there.

I can’t really say he’s wrong about that, since that last clause is the story of the Playstation 3, sort of. The PS3 did didn’t really find that whole audience until it wasn’t so pricey, though, which might also end up being the story of the 3DS.

That quote is making my brain spin in my head as I try to figure out what it means. Is he trying to say the NGP is going to cost more than we already think it might? Or is he just making these comments in a void? Maybe he’s just messing with us to see how we react so they’ll know our limits. Or maybe he’s just saying this so we’ll be all excited and stuff when it’s a lot cheaper than we expect. But it can’t possibly be cheaper than we expect, right? I give up. You win this round, Jack.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/ngp-may-see-staggered-release-be-really-expensive/feed/0GDC11: NGP Media Will Include Dedicated Save Spacehttp://www.gamefront.com/gdc11-ngp-media-will-include-dedicated-save-space/
http://www.gamefront.com/gdc11-ngp-media-will-include-dedicated-save-space/#commentsThu, 03 Mar 2011 23:14:40 +0000Phil Hornshawhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=86971NGP games will come with their own dedicated space for memory, so you can pop the game out and transfer it to another device, save and all.

Straight from GDC 2011, Sony has released some details about the media that games will be come on for its upcoming handheld, the NGP.

The NVG cards, as they’re called right now, will come in two flash media storage sizes, 2Gb and 4Gb, depending on the size of the game they carry. One cool addition to the NVG cards is a dedicated 5 to 10 percent just for game saves, updates and the like. That way, you can easily transfer game saves to other devices by popping out the game you’re playing and just plugging it into another NGP, saving you from having to maneuver save files from internal memory to some other media. Great that we finally have reclaimed this technology from the days of the NES and The Legend of Zelda.

Sounds like Sony has some good ideas here. But it’s still a bummer that NGP won’t let you play the PSP UMD games you already own.

As a massive zombie fan, a big fan of B horror movies and a lover of stupidly hard SNES games, few things could make for better news for me: there exists a Zombies Ate My Neighbors film script, and development on the film is reportedly going well.

That’s from movie site FirstShowing.net, which reports that John Darko has penned the script. I’m not usually a fan of game-to-movie adaptations as a concept, but ZAMN is one of those rare moments when the game and the film could both be amazing and yet not diminish one another — plus it’s not a franchise that’s currently developing a story, so there’s nothing to gripe about. The movie is described as “John Hughes meets Judd Apatow meets George Romero.”

There are roadblocks, though. The film is an independent development that’s still looking for financiers, and there’s a question of securing the rights from Konami. So it might not happen at all, potentially. But it should happen, because it would be awesome. Vampires, giant ants, werewolves, mad scientists, graboids, giant babies – and of course, zombies. Yes, please.

Look, David O Russell’s ‘Uncharted’ movie is never going to happen, ever. I’ll return to that point in an upcoming post, but for now I want you to keep that inevitable, cosmic fact of life in mind as we discuss the latest crazed surprisingly not-so-crazed(!) ramblings to drop out of his fevered imagination.

What is the situation with your Uncharted movie script? It seems such a natural game to turn into a movie…

The game is very cinematic; there’s no question about it. That’s what I’m working on real hard and I’m writing it as we speak and I’m really excited to make it. I’d love Mark to be in it, I’d love Bob De Niro to be in it; I love the idea of growing them into a cinematic family; I think that’s a really cool idea, but… I guess you’ll have to wait until you see the script.

Setting aside the blatant obsequiousness in the second part of that question, this answer is a bit headscratchy. On the one hand, Marky Mark wasn’t talking out of his funky bunch – ‘Bob’ Deniro is apparently really being considered for some unspecified part. Yucko. But the thing that really stands out for me here is that that Wahlberg doesn’t sound as confirmed as we’ve been led to believe. Saying “I’d love to” do something isn’t the same thing as saying “I’m going to”. I think we can take this as confirmation that no contracts have been signed. Nathan Fillion fans, this might be your reprieve.

However, the real shizz here is that David O Russell is also turning his attention to Nathan Drake’s mostly-love interest, Elena:

What thoughts do you have about the love interest, Elena?

Ah, Elena. I’ve cultivated her quite a bit and I think I’ve added a lot of dimension to her so that’s all I’m going to say. I love the woman characters and the more robust they are, the more robust the movie.

I actually agree with the most of that sentiment, but when I see ‘I’ve cultivated her quite a bit’ and ‘added a lot of dimension’, I begin to fear details like ‘tragic backstory’, and ‘Jennifer Connelly in Blood Diamond’. And then I read this:

From watching The Fighter, we would love Amy Adams to play Elena…

Oh I would love that too, I love Amy. I also love Scarlett Johansson; there’s a lot of great actors I think might suit. Hopefully, we’ll see how it works out with everybody who are being scoped to do that role…

FWIW, it does kind of look like she can look the part.

I can hear some of you crying about this one, and it is very true that Scarjo doesn’t have the best track record with Action films. Really, seriously. It’s also true that Russell does not suck at picking actors, and Scarlett Johansson is excellent (her work with Woody Allen, Sophia Coppola and Terry Zwigoff speaks for itself.) I’ve no idea whether or not she can withstand Russell’s legendary mean streak, and I still think everything we’ve heard about the plot and characters sounds terrible. But of all the weird Uncharted movie news we’ve so far heard, this is the very first time I’m actually kind of interested.

I’ll be weighing in later on why I don’t think this disaster is going to ever happen, but if it does? You could do a lot worse than ScarJo. In the mean time, here’s a reminder that Russell is cloudcoocooland insane, and to take everything he says with a large grain of salt.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/david-o-russell-wants-scarlett-johansson-in-the-uncharted-movie/feed/03 Reasons NGP is the Future of Portables (and 3 Why It Will Crash and Burn)http://www.gamefront.com/3-reasons-ngp-is-the-future-of-portables-and-3-why-it-will-crash-and-burn/
http://www.gamefront.com/3-reasons-ngp-is-the-future-of-portables-and-3-why-it-will-crash-and-burn/#commentsTue, 01 Feb 2011 19:17:44 +0000Phil Hornshawhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=82746Looking through what we know about Sony's Next Generation Portable, there's a lot to be excited about -- and a lot to fear. We break down the NGP's potential triumphs and pitfalls.

Most of the games media industry is currently in female-Beatles-fan gush mode over Sony’s new portable, the NGP. Reading the liveblogs coming out of Tokyo on Jan. 27 was a bit overwhelming, as on a few of them, you could almost feel the squee! buzzing through the electrical lines carrying the news away from Japan. As with lots of new technologies, the people enthusiastic about it gathered around to worship at Sony’s altar.

Having read most of the coverage, as well as the Sony specs, I can say that despite the initial outpouring of nerd-excitement, the NGP is an impressive machine. There are a few aspects of the Sony’s handheld that could really be phenomenal, especially given the tough state of Sony’s portable business right now. With Sony’s outreach to mobile gaming and its super-powerful, PS3-compatible technology, the NGP could really be the portable gaming system for which we’ve all been waiting.

But it isn’t all double-rainbows and cute little puppy turds, however. Everyone’s drooling over the NGP and its godlike Playstation-emulating capabilities, but this new Sony machine could very well be the final nail in Sony’s quickly descending (portable) coffin. Sony’s out of touch with the directions of modern gaming, and with the NGP, it’s meet the new boss, same as the old boss — another overpriced portable that caters to the big publishing and developing houses, and not to the wishes of players.

So here’s my analysis: three reasons the NGP could be portable gaming’s messiah, and three more why the Ubermensch of handhelds isn’t really all that uber at all.

NGP as the next Jesus

1. Playstation Suite

The single most forward-thinking aspect of the NGP isn’t its hardware or anything to do with how you control it — in fact, everything about the NGP is old hat when it comes to how it plays games (for touch screens, see any number of mobile phones and tablet PCs and even the Nintendo DS). The most modern and intelligent thing about it is its compatibility with the portable gaming market that’s exploding right now — mobile gaming.

I rail about mobile a lot, because every time I look at it, I’m more impressed. But here’s the bottom line: there are millions of players who play games on their smartphones, and Sony is letting them pay for, download and play its Playstation-branded games. That’s where portable gaming is going, and the NGP could potentially be a phenomenal vessel to use to get there.

Playstation Suite is an app for phone’s running Google’s Android operating system, that’ll allow phones to download emulated PS One games and new Playstation-branded games. The NGP will have PS Suite, too, which will give it a portal to possible bite-sized, casual games that can be played against a huge number of players. And if PS Suite goes to iPhone (and it possibly could, given a recent statement from SCE CEO Kaz Harai), it’ll be even more enormous. With a monster multiplayer community and potentially bargain-priced, casual pick-up-and-play games, Playstation Suite could help Sony take its first step into a larger world.

2. Kojima’s Vision of Truly Portable Gaming

During Sony’s Playstation Meeting in Tokyo, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima showed Metal Gear Solid 4 running on the NGP and spoke about his hopes for a day when a gamer could play MGS at home, sync an NGP with his or her PS3, and continue playing on the go — the same game in the same place, with no break in between. A truly portable experience, not just a machine that plays watered-down, small-scale versions of popular games.

It’s hard to be too hopeful about the possibilities, especially given that Kojima talked about that capability, rather than Sony. But that feature, if it is actually a real thing, could be enough to sustain the NGP through what is quickly becoming an antiquated model for pocket video games.

Today, in a fight between PSP versions of Metal Gear Solid and games like Angry Birds, Angry Birds is winning — handily. The games are smaller, cheaper, easier to play and — dare I say it — more engaging. But the slice of the population that would love to stop an MGS4 game and have to leave home and jump on a bus to work, only to pick up on an NGP right where they left off, is an absolutely massive audience. I would even go so far as to say there’s not a single PS3 owner who wouldn’t pay a lot for the privilege. And there are quite a few Xbox 360 loyalists who would jump ship for it, too. If Sony really, truly commits to serving the “hardcore” gaming community, as it seems it has, this would be the way to do it.

3. A Worthy Playstation 3 Companion

Yes, the PSP has the ability to link up with the PS3, trade data, and maybe even operate as a controller. But Sony needs to take a page from Apple in this regard: the NGP needs to be capable of connecting with Sony’s machine, grabbing digital copies of movies from blu-ray disc packages, and basically act as a replacement smartphone on the Playstation network. This thing needs to stream movies over Wi-Fi from PSN and the PS3, it needs to act as a controller, it needs to offer things that real Playstation gamers are going to absolutely love — and it’s going to need to offer them for free.

The NGP needs to function so well in relationship with a PS3 that non-NGP PS3 owners are going to see the two devices in action together and think to themselves, God, how much better would my life be if I had that thing?

Apple is working on this right now with its AirPlay functionality, which lets the company’s devices talk to each other over a local Wi-Fi network. The NGP could do the same thing, expanding Sony’s attempts at making the PS3 an entertainment hub by unbridling it from your TV. The PS3 might be the center of a lot of players’ entertainment universes, but they shouldn’t have to be in the center of their houses to enjoy it. Other technologies are mastering that capability: Sony has the opportunity to do so, as well.

NGP as a Future Smoking Pile of Failure

1. Sony Has No Idea What It’s Doing

Sony is flailing right now. Relative to the Nintendo DS and even smartphone gaming, the PSP has been on the decline almost since it was launched. Sony is using the same strategy it has been for the last two decades — more power, more power, more power. It hasn’t worked with the Playstation 3, it hasn’t worked with the PSP, and it won’t work with the NGP.

There’s no better illustration that Sony has absolutely no direction for its portable business than the NGP itself. The device is an amalgamation of everything that’s working for other devices right now — if it had been rolled out with glasses-free 3D, I wouldn’t have been surprised in the least. Sony is clutching at every straw it can get its hands on in an attempt to find a magic bullet that will make it competitive in mobile and portable gaming: the link to Android, the touchscreen and touch pad controls, the analog sticks, the downloadable games, and even the near-PS3-caliber games are all an attempt to find something that’ll make some damn money, and none of it is innovative. At its core, it’s the same old Sony — the same mentality that has been causing the company to lose marketshare to its major competitors for the last five years.

Here’s a really simple point of comparison: the Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 (although by a small margin), and the Xbox 360’s failure rate is, last I read, just a little less than double that of the PS3. That’s a statistical fact — the Xbox breaks more often than the PS3. It’s a weaker system that lacks blu-ray capability and overall hardware power. So why is the PS3 losing that fight, or only keeping it close? Because Sony’s overdriven, premium-priced hardware philosophy for the PS3 simply did not work.

Now Sony’s using the exact same overdrive strategy on the NGP as it has with the PS3, and it’ll have similar results, just like it has with the PSP. You’re going to get NGP games that are all over the map as far as control and technology, but none of them will be unique to the system — they’ll feel like PS3 games that aren’t as well-made, with tacked on augmented reality systems or touch controls for novelty. But at their heart, these will be games you’ll have played before, that were a better and more exciting experience, on your big TV at home. So why would you buy games that are the same experience or worse than what you have at home? Why would you pay Sony for the privilege of playing UMD games you already own? And if Sony truly s–ts the bed on this and doesn’t make PS3 games NGP-compatible in some way, why would you pay for full-priced games twice?

2. A Shotgun Approach to Stupid Features

OH MY GOD THE NGP WILL HAVE TROPHIES.

The gaming press ate up that feature, which Sony didn’t even confirm but brilliantly left for writers to glean from the stills it showed in Tokyo this week. Oh man, Trophies? How amazing is that!

Actually, not amazing. At all.

Remember what I was just saying about the NGP as an amalgamation of anything remotely popular? Trophies are another symptom of that disease, which infects the NGP and Sony’s plan like a cancer. Trophies on the NGP are not that big of a deal, because looking at Trophy lists is really not that compelling. It’s a feature Sony threw on in a desperate attempt to increase social networking with the NGP — yet another thing that’s doing well in the world, so why not incorporate it?

The downfall is, the NGP is going to be an expensive, exclusive machine with a small built-in audience and a smaller demographic even capable of buying it. Its social networking capabilities are going to be lacking, and worse, they’re going to provide players with reasons not to buy the NGP.

Sony made a big deal about “Location-Based Entertainment” at the Playstation Meeting, which is supposed to show players who’s playing what in their geographic vicinity. But unless the NGP really is the greatest portable ever and everyone buys it, those location-based features are going to show lots of mostly empty maps, or slightly less empty maps filled with a bunch of people playing different games. It’s not going to be the “make friends, find opponents” atmosphere Sony thinks it is because Sony’s not Facebook or Foursquare, and hardcore gamers that would buy a big flashy portable are not that dense a population. Instead, the location-based features are going to show the NGP’s weaknesses, and Sony’s going to abandon any support they might have had when the features aren’t immediately successful.

3. A Diminishing Market

Guess what — hardcore gamers who want to pay as much as $300 or more to play Playstation games while they’re on the go is a small group, and getting smaller. There’s a reason why the PSP has been steadily losing market share for years, and it’s a message Sony doesn’t seem to be getting: people are not buying it.

So what’s different about the NGP? Absolutely nothing. It’s another heavily powerful console-style gaming machine that caters to players who want heavily powerful console-style gaming. Those people are not the market that’s currently driving the video game market, and you only have to look at the sales figures from Sony and compare them to Nintendo’s for the Wii or the DS and Apple’s for the iPhone to see that. Smaller, casual gaming with innovative controls and experiences are making money hand over fist, and Sony’s putting out a machine for a segment of the gaming public that, relatively speaking, started out riding dinosaurs.

“Hardcore” gamers, as a group, are fewer and fewer every year. Those of us who grew up with video games in the 1980s and 1990s have grown up and, as adults, simply don’t have the time and disposable income to dedicate to expensive video games. Meanwhile, 15-year-olds with lots of spending money aren’t that big a market, but that’s who Sony’s catering to — oh, and the big publishers and developers. Don’t forget them.

Not to be totally cynical, but the people who Sony has built the NGP for aren’t the people who will be buying it — it’s the people who plan to make games for it. Epic, Sega, Capcom and Konami are thrilled to be able to make high-priced games with technology that’s pretty close to that which they’re already using. And they get to make new games in all their AAA franchises to boot, which will sell at a premium, pull in lots of revenue from gamers, and ultimately be more of the same gaming experience.

Can Sony Handle It?

That’s the ultimate question. How Sony deals with the great parts of its NGP — and how well it goes about making things available to players without nickle-and-diming them to death — are going to determine just how successful NGP is. Sony and its spiffy new handheld can overcome its potential pitfalls by capitalizing on the features that gamers can’t live without: things like streaming video from a PS3, saving games in a cloud, accessible-over-the-Internet format and playing them on the go, and opening the NGP up to the casual market as well as the hardcore market. All those things are very doable, and if Sony instills its new portable with a great deal of value, it could reign supreme in the next handheld generation.

But mismanagement and a reliance on power over innovation could just as easily doom the device. Sony hasn’t really shown us anything that we haven’t seen before yet, and without a specific reason to buy an NGP game — a quantifiable NGP experience, unattainable anywhere else — players just aren’t going to respond, especially if the new portable costs as much as a new console.

We won’t know Sony’s strategy for a while, but when it finally does roll out, it’ll be interesting to see if the company has learned from its past mistakes, or if they’ll expect players to pay for more of the same.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/3-reasons-ngp-is-the-future-of-portables-and-3-why-it-will-crash-and-burn/feed/20A Video of the NGP Playing Games It Shouldn’t Be Able to Playhttp://www.gamefront.com/a-video-of-the-ngp-playing-games-it-shouldnt-be-able-to-play/
http://www.gamefront.com/a-video-of-the-ngp-playing-games-it-shouldnt-be-able-to-play/#commentsThu, 27 Jan 2011 22:09:13 +0000Phil Owenhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=82628Goddamn it, I think I need one of these.

The NGP boasts a ridiculous lineup of titles that might make it a must-buy for a lot of hardcore gamers. It’s gonna have new Uncharted, Killzone and Resistance titles, and they’re gonna be the real deal unlike the Resistance and Killzone titles currently available on the PSP. Here’s a video GameOn took at the big event last night that shows this ridiculous nonsense off.